Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Here is an adult book for people who liked the Hunger Games and Harry Potter series. Bone Season is set in the year 2059 in an alternate history version of England. Two hundred years ago there was an influx of clairvoyant people who can connect to the aether--the realm of spirits. England is controlled by a totalitarian organization called Scion which is trying to eradicate clairvoyants. The main character is nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney who is a rare type of clairvoyant called a dreamwalker. She and five other clairvoyants have been working for a mime-lord, the head of an underground criminal organization. Paige is captured by Scion and sent to a penal colony called Sheol I which is located where Oxford University was. Sheol I is controlled by an otherworldly race called the Rephaim. Clairvoyants who survive being tested by the Rephaim will become Red Jackets and will fight the brutish flesh-eating creatures called Emim which were also unleashed on the earth with the Rephaim when the aether was breeched two hundred years ago. Paige is given the number XX-59-40 and assigned to the Rephaite Arcturus, Warden of the Mesarthim. Confused? The book is a little slow-going at first as the author builds the setting and characters. There is a helpful glossary in back as well as a map of Sheol I and a listing of clairvoyant types. Paige is similar to the character Katniss in the Hunger Games series. She is loyal to her friends, defiant of authority, tough, and strong. And as in the Harry Potter series, the reader enters another world of the supernatural with its own set of rules. Author Samantha Shannon is a recent university graduate who has plans for a seven-part series. Bone Season was picked for the NBC Today Show Book Club and is on the New York Times bestseller list.